Subscriber reputation filtering method for analyzing subscriber activity and detecting account misuse

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for allowing subscriber message sending profiles to be maintained and used in conjunction with behavior-based anomaly detection techniques and traditional content-based spam signature filtering to enable application of appropriate message disposition policies to outbound subscriber message traffic. According to one embodiment, subscriber profiles are constructed for multiple subscriber accounts associated with a service provider based on outbound message flow originated from the subscriber accounts. Then, possible subscriber account misuse may be discovered by performing behavior-based anomaly detection, including a comparison of a subscriber profile associated with the subscriber account with recent subscriber account usage information, to identify one or more behavioral anomalies in outbound message flow originated from a subscriber account, the behavior-based anomaly detection.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/638,208, filed on Dec. 21, 2004 and U.S. Provisional Application No.60/693,927, filed on Jun. 23, 2005, both of which are herebyincorporated by reference for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Contained herein is material that is subject to copyright protection.The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction ofthe patent disclosure by any person as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves allrights to the copyright whatsoever. Copyright© 2004-2005 MX Logic, Inc.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems andmethods for remediating outbound messaging abuse. More specifically,embodiments of the present invention provide for systems and methods ofallowing service providers filter outbound subscriber email traffic forspam and/or worm-oriented messages using one or more of individualsubscriber email sending reputation, real-time analysis of messagecontent and behavior-based anomaly detection.

2. Description of Related Art

Reputation has become a new frontier in spam fighting and many differentcompanies have introduced reputation databases that provide insight intothe historical email sending behavior of Internet Protocol (IP)addresses or email servers. These new email reputation services also arebeginning to provide accreditation services, where email sendingorganizations that have no email sending history can pay to have one ofthese services vouch for them, presumably after a fair amount of duediligence has been done by the accrediting service.

Using reputation on the Internet to infer future behavior or todetermine access to services is relatively new. However, there have beensome implementations, such as EBay's seller reputation or Amazon'srating system for reviewers that have worked fairly well in minimizingparticipation risk. But, unlike the EBay and Amazon models, the emailreputation schemes that have been introduced to the market build theirreputation not from individuals, but rather from organizationalidentifiers, such as IP addresses or domain names.

There are problems with using IP addresses to track email sendingbehavior. For example, it is fairly common for a message to travelmultiple hops before arriving at a recipient's email gateway, thusmaking it difficult to always identify the true IP address of theoriginating sender. In fact, as it turns out, those that would be mostlikely to hide their email sending identity or originating IP address,often will purposely route their messages through several unauthorizedgateways.

Meanwhile, because the email protocol does not provide forauthentication, domain name reputation for email sending has not had anopportunity to be successful. However, the industry anticipates adoptinga protocol extension that will remove fraudulent email envelopes andprovide reputation services with a static identity for organizations inwhich email sending behavior can be associated.

Since IP addresses and domain names are usually tied to organizations,they are often shared by all the end-users within those organizations.Most Internet service providers use dynamic IP addresses for theirsubscribers, which provide a new IP address with each Internet session.Other service providers and enterprises force their end users to sendtheir messages through authenticated email gateways that have their ownshared IP addresses. The lack of persistent identity with IP addressesposes a real risk for email sending reputation, which will mostly bebased on transient user behavior.

For organizations with small groups of email senders it is probably okayfor their reputation to be tied to a domain name; however, for largerbusinesses and service providers, this creates an enormous challenge asthe organizational reputation is constructed from the aggregate of eachindividual user's behavior. In some instances, millions of independentend users are responsible for an organization's email sending behavior.Worse yet, an end user's identity can be hijacked by a spam sendingvirus, thereby compounding the trust problem.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are described for allowing subscriber messagesending profiles to be maintained and used in conjunction withbehavior-based anomaly detection techniques and traditionalcontent-based spam signature filtering to enable application ofappropriate message disposition policies to outbound subscriber messagetraffic. According to one embodiment, subscriber profiles areconstructed for multiple subscriber accounts associated with a serviceprovider based on outbound message flow originated from the subscriberaccounts. Then, possible subscriber account misuse may be discovered byperforming behavior-based anomaly detection, including a comparison of asubscriber profile associated with the subscriber account with recentsubscriber account usage information, to identify one or more behavioralanomalies in outbound message flow originated from a subscriber account,the behavior-based anomaly detection.

A more complete understanding of various embodiments and features of thepresent invention may be derived by referring to the detaileddescription of preferred embodiments and claims when considered inconnection with the figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the Figures, similar components and/or features may have the samereference label. Further, various components of the same type may bedistinguished by following the reference label with a second label thatdistinguishes among the similar components. If only the first referencelabel is used in the specification, the description is applicable to anyone of the similar components having the same first reference labelirrespective of the second reference label.

FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates a real-time attack recognitionarchitecture according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified high level architectural view of a serviceprovider network employing sender reputation management functionality inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates interactions among various functional units of asender reputation gateway according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a computer system with whichembodiments of the present invention may be utilized.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating outbound subscriber trafficprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating behavior-based anomaly detectionprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A-B depict various exemplary overview user interface (UI) screenshots in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 8A-E depict various exemplary configuration UI screen shots inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 9A-F depict various exemplary policies UI screen shots inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 10A-C depict various exemplary reporting UI screen shots inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are described for allowing subscriber messagesending profiles to be maintained and used in conjunction withbehavior-based anomaly detection techniques and traditionalcontent-based spam signature filtering to enable application ofappropriate message disposition policies to outbound subscriber messagetraffic. According to one embodiment, a sender reputation gateway (SRG)may be employed by an organization, such as an Internet service provider(ISP), service provider or other company, to police email sendingconduct of their subscribers and thereby protect their organizationalemail sending reputation.

In one embodiment, the SRG models individual subscriber accounts anddetects deviations from this model in outbound message flow to identifypotential misuse of subscriber accounts. For example, the SRG may buildsubscriber profiles for each subscriber based on behavior data extractedfrom each email message originated by the subscriber. A reputation scoreor other measure of subscriber trustworthiness may then be based uponshort-term and/or long-term reputation data. Such subscriber reputationdata may be used to determine an immediate email action for a currentemail message in question and/or a long-term subscriber action for allsubsequent email messages originated by the particular subscriber. Inone embodiment, reputation data generated from a single email messagemay be used to determine message disposition, e.g., deny, add blindcarbon copy (bcc) recipient, etc., for that message itself. According toother embodiments, reputation data generated from a single email messagecan be combined with long-term reputation data to determine if actionsneed to be taken against the subscriber, such as redirect to relay pool,reduce the subscriber's privileges or lower the subscriber'strustworthiness rating.

The SRG may perform multiple content filters on outbound subscribertraffic. In addition to the reputation filter, the content filters mayinclude one or more of a spam filter, a virus filter, a phishing filterand a throttle filter. In one embodiment, the SRG also providesweb-based access to network operations analysts to message dispositionpolicies, notifications, alerts, submission status and traffic reports.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thepresent invention may be practiced without some of these specificdetails.

Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computerprogram product which may include a machine-readable medium havingstored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (orother electronic devices) to perform a process. The machine-readablemedium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, opticaldisks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMs), and magneto-opticaldisks, ROMs, random access memories (RAMs), erasable programmableread-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmableread-only memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, flash memory,or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storingelectronic instructions. Moreover, embodiments of the present inventionmay also be downloaded as a computer program product, wherein theprogram may be transferred from a remote computer to a requestingcomputer by way of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or otherpropagation medium via a communication link (e.g., a modem or networkconnection).

While, for convenience, various embodiments of the present invention maybe described with reference to outbound email message abuse, the presentinvention is equally applicable to various other forms of asynchronousoutbound messages, such as instant messages, mobile messages (e.g., SMS,MMS), voice mail and the like.

For the sake of illustration, various embodiments of the presentinvention are described herein in the context of computer programs,physical components, and logical interactions within modem computernetworks. Importantly, while these embodiments describe various aspectsof the invention in relation to modem computer networks and programs,the method and apparatus described herein are equally applicable toother systems, devices, and networks as one skilled in the art willappreciate. As such, the illustrated applications of the embodiments ofthe present invention are not meant to be limiting, but insteadexemplary. Other systems, devices, and networks to which embodiments ofthe present invention are applicable include, but are not limited to,cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, BlackBerry®devices and the like.

Terminology

Brief definitions of terms, abbreviations, and phrases used throughoutthis application are given below.

The terms “connected” or “coupled” and related terms are used in anoperational sense and are not necessarily limited to a direct physicalconnection or coupling. Thus, for example, two devices may be coupledirectly, or via one or more intermediary media or devices. As anotherexample, devices may be coupled in such a way that information can bepassed therebetween, while not sharing any physical connection on withanother. Based on the disclosure provided herein, one of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate a variety of ways in which connection orcoupling exists in accordance with the aforementioned definition.

The phrases “in one embodiment,” “according to one embodiment,” and thelike generally mean the particular feature, structure, or characteristicfollowing the phrase is included in at least one embodiment of thepresent invention, and may be included in more than one embodiment ofthe present invention. Importantly, such phases do not necessarily referto the same embodiment.

The phrase “Internet service provider” or “ISP” generally refers to aservice provider or other organization that provides access to theInternet. ISPs may provide service via modem, ISDN, cable, DSL or thelike and may also offer private line hookups (e.g., T1, fractional T1,etc.). As used herein, the term ISP is intended to encompass onlineservices, such as America Online and CompuServe, that provide memberswith Internet access as well as members only content, forums andservices. While ISPs are typically fee-based companies that providethird party subscribers or members with “dial-up” or direct access tothe Internet via SLP, PPP, or TCP/IP, as used herein the term ISP isalso intended to encompass companies in their role as employerssupplying Internet access to employees and/or contractors. Therefore,for purposes of this application, an enterprise supplying email accountsto its employees acts as an ISP and the employees would be consideredsubscribers of the ISP.

If the specification states a component or feature “may”, “can”,“could”, or “might” be included or have a characteristic, thatparticular component or feature is not required to be included or havethe characteristic.

The term “responsive” includes completely or partially responsive.

The phrase “service provider” generally refers to a company thatprovides users with services and/or subscriptions to a messagingnetwork, such as the Internet, a wireless network, a mobile phonenetwork and/or the like. As used herein, the phrase “service provider”is intended to encompass not only companies, such as ISPs, wirelessoperators, carriers and the like, that may provide access to messagingnetworks for a fee, but additionally is intended to encompass companiesacting in their capacities as employers providing their employees and/orcontractors with access to messaging networks. Consequently, forpurposes of this application, an enterprise supplying email, voice,voice mail, mobile phone, text messaging and/or other messaging servicesto its employees and/or contractors acts as a service provider withrespect to such employees and/or contractors and such employees and/orcontractors would be considered subscribers of the service provider.

The term “subscriber” generally refers to an individual or company thatis a user of services provided by a service provider. For purposes ofclarity, in addition to covering the traditional notion of a subscriberas an individual or company that pays a fee for use and/or access toservices provided by the service provider, as used herein, the termsubscriber is intended to encompass employees, consultants, contractorsand/or the like that are provided with services (e.g., email, voice,voice mail, mobile phone, wireless, text messaging and/or othermessaging accounts) by virtue of their relationship with an employer orcompany.

FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates a real-time attack recognitionarchitecture 130 according to one embodiment of the present invention.In the example depicted, based upon subscriber profile data 120 and SMTPdata 110 resulting from subscriber activity 105, the real-time attackrecognition architecture 130 (i) applies appropriate message dispositionpolicies 140 to outbound message traffic, (ii) alerts a networkoperations analyst 145 (e.g., a service provider administrator, networkoperations center or abuse staff) of potential subscriber accountmisuse, and (iii) builds and modifies subscriber reputation 150.According to one embodiment, subscriber reputation 150 may beadditionally influenced by factors, data and/or internal or externalinputs other than SMTP data 110. For example, the subscriber's computermay communicate information to the service provider regarding thepresence or absence of certain software. The presence of anti-virus orpersonal security software installed on a subscriber's computer maypositively affect subscriber reputation 150 and the absence of suchsoftware may negatively affect subscriber reputation 150. Further, theversion of the anti-virus or personal security software installed on thesubscriber's computer, whether updates are enabled, and other factorsmay be taken into consideration when determining subscriber reputation150.

Traditional filtering technologies sometimes do not catch new, emergingthreats fast enough for effective outbound abuse containment. In oneembodiment, the real-time attack recognition engine 130 includes both aspam detection process 131 and a predictive detection model 133 therebyallowing subscriber reputation to be constructed, modified and/orweighted by a model evaluation process 132 based on both content-basedspam filtering approaches (e.g., signature and/or statistical spamdetection) and behavior-based anomaly detection techniques, describedfurther below, which, in general, seek to identify changes in a sender'sobserved SMTP behavior to influence the sender's reputation score.

According to the present example, a data mining process 115 maintainssubscriber profile data 120 by tracking, aggregating and applyingstatistical analysis to various subscriber behavior attributes extractedfrom SMTP data 110. For example, in one embodiment, subscriber profiledata 120 may include, but is not limited to, metrics regarding one ormore of:

-   -   the total number of messages originated by the subscriber;    -   the total number of messages originated by the subscriber        suspected of being spam;    -   the total number of messages originated by the subscriber        suspected of containing a virus;    -   the average number of messages originated by the subscriber;    -   the average number of messages originated by the subscriber        within a predefined time interval;    -   the average size of messages originated by the subscriber;    -   the largest size message originated by the subscriber;    -   the maximum size permitted to be originated by the subscriber;    -   the average number of recipients to which messages originated by        the subscriber are addressed;    -   the largest number of recipients on a particular message        originated by the subscriber;    -   the maximum number of recipients permitted to be addressed by        the subscriber on an outbound message;    -   the frequency of recipients;    -   the address format (e.g., pretty name) employed;    -   the average number of message header lines in messages        originated by the subscriber;    -   the maximum number of message header lines in messages        originated by the subscriber;    -   the average Bayesian spam filter probability score for messages        originated by the subscriber;    -   the number of messages originated by the subscriber with        attachments;    -   the number of messages originated by the subscriber with        attachments of certain types or groups of types (e.g., .exe,        .com, .sys, .dll, .scr, .cpl, .api, .drv, .bpl, .zip, etc.);    -   the number of messages originated by the subscriber via a        particular mailer;    -   the number of messages originated by the subscriber that include        content from a particular character set; and    -   standard deviations relating to the foregoing.        Such metrics may be maintained in aggregate, used to determine        time of day patters and/or may be subtotaled by particular time        intervals (e.g., previous week, hour or five minute interval;        current week, hour or five minute interval). Advantageously, by        identifying changes in a user's sending behavior, the real-time        attack recognition engine 130 may detect abuse faster than        traditional filters. This will result in more effective abuse        containment, leading to better outbound reputation scores for        the service provider's outbound MTAs, resulting in less frequent        blacklisting and thus better quality of service through better        email deliverability.

According to one embodiment, there are two contexts in which reputationscores may be used: to identify an immediate email action and toestablish long-term subscriber actions. With respect to immediate emailaction, reputation data generated from a single email can be used todetermine what action (deny, bcc, etc.) to take on the single emailitself. Reputation data generated from a single email can be combinedwith long-term reputation data (e.g., subscriber profiles) to determineif long-term subscriber actions need to be taken against the subscriber(such as redirection to relay pool or whether subscriber privileges arereduced). In implementing long-term subscriber actions, an analogy canbe made to someone who bounces a check. The check itself will have aspecific action taken on it, but the action taken on the check writerwill be affected by whether this is his/her first bad check or whetherthe writer has a history of bad checks.

According to one embodiment, reputation-based routing may be performedby the SRG. For example, email messages originated by a subscriberhaving below a predetermined threshold reputation score may be routed toa transient mail server or dirty pool of IP addresses to protect theservice providers' outbound mail server reputation.

FIG. 2 is a simplified high level architectural view of a serviceprovider network 200 employing sender reputation managementfunctionality in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Traditionally, the service provider's outbound delivery pool,e.g., service provider outbound MTA pool 235, interfaces directly withsubscribers 225 a-225 n to deliver outbound message traffic originatedby the subscribers 225 a-225 n to their intended destinations via theInternet 240. According to the present example, a sender reputationgateway (SRG) 205 is logically positioned in front of service provideroutbound MTA pool 235 and acts as a proxy for the service provideroutbound MTA pool 235 by servicing and responding to SMTP requestsdirected to the service provider outbound MTA pool 235 issued bysubscribers 225 a-225 n.

As described further below, SRG 205 may extract behavior attributes,such as those identified above, from outbound message traffic originatedby authenticated users and continuously update and store reputation andmessage sending behavior profiles within a reputation and behaviordatabase 220 for each subscriber 225 a-225 n based upon the extractedbehavior attributes. According to one embodiment, when the reputationand message sending behavior data for a particular subscriber issufficient to identify behavioral anomalies within a desired confidenceinterval, the SRG 205 may use the subscriber message sending behaviorprofile in addition to or instead of message content to filter outboundmessages.

According to one embodiment, the SRG 205 interacts with a connectionauthentication server 230, such as a Remote Authentication Dial-In UserService (RADIUS) server, and a subscriber database 215 to correlatesmessaging abuse history with true subscriber identity (obtained via IPaddress, SMTP AUTH ID, RADIUS ID, web site login ID, Instant MessagingID, MIN (telephone number) or other means).

In the embodiment depicted, an SRG control console 210 is a web-basedgraphical user interface using HTTP or HTTPS protocols. The SRG controlconsole 210 may provide multiple levels of security, accessibility,configuration entities and user roles. According to one embodiment, theSRG control console 210 is the primary interface used by administratorsto configure, view and maintain message policies, traffic, systemconfigurations and user access. In one embodiment, the SRG userinterface and menu choices are role driven, thereby limitingaccessibility to information and data to those user roles permitted toview and/or modify same. As described further below, the SRG controlconsole 210 may also provide various reports to administrators of theservice provider network, such as those detailing information aboutemail traffic, filtering, policies, and system usage. As describedfurther below, in one embodiment, depending upon the particular messagecontent filtering configuration, which may be specified via the SRGcontrol console 210, the SRG 205 may apply various anti-virus enginesand/or spam filters to outbound message traffic.

Exemplary Computer System Overview

Embodiments of the present invention include various steps, which willbe described in more detail below. A variety of these steps may beperformed by hardware components or may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processor programmed with theinstructions to perform the steps. Alternatively, the steps may beperformed by a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Assuch, FIG. 4 is an example of a computer system 400, such as aworkstation, personal computer, client, server or gateway, upon which orwith which embodiments of the present invention may be utilized.

According to the present example, the computer system includes a bus401, at least one processor 402, at least one communication port 403, amain memory 404, a removable storage media 405 a read only memory 406,and a mass storage 407.

Processor(s) 402 can be any known processor, such as, but not limitedto, an Intel® Itanium® or Itanium 2 processor(s), or AMD® Opteron® orAthlon MP® processor(s), or Motorola® lines of processors. Communicationport(s) 403 can be any of an RS-232 port for use with a modem baseddialup connection, a 10/100 Ethernet port, or a Gigabit port usingcopper or fiber. Communication port(s) 403 may be chosen depending on anetwork such a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or anynetwork to which the computer system 400 connects.

Main memory 404 can be Random Access Memory (RAM), or any other dynamicstorage device(s) commonly known in the art. Read only memory 406 can beany static storage device(s) such as Programmable Read Only Memory(PROM) chips for storing static information such as instructions forprocessor 402.

Mass storage 407 can be used to store information and instructions. Forexample, hard disks such as the Adaptec® family of SCSI drives, anoptical disc, an array of disks such as RAID, such as the Adaptec familyof RAID drives, or any other mass storage devices may be used.

Bus 401 communicatively couples processor(s) 402 with the other memory,storage and communication blocks. Bus 401 can be a PCI/PCI-X or SCSIbased system bus depending on the storage devices used.

Removable storage media 405 can be any kind of external hard-drives,floppy drives, IOMEGA® Zip Drives, Compact Disc-Read Only Memory(CD-ROM), Compact Disc-Re-Writable (CD-RW), Digital Video Disk-Read OnlyMemory (DVD-ROM).

The components described above are meant to exemplify some types ofpossibilities. In no way should the aforementioned examples limit thescope of the invention, as they are only exemplary embodiments.

In conclusion, embodiments of the present invention provide novelsystems and methods for allowing subscriber message sending profiles tobe maintained and used in conjunction with behavior-based anomalydetection techniques and traditional content-based filtering to enableapplication of appropriate message disposition policies to outboundsubscriber traffic. While detailed descriptions of one or moreembodiments of the invention have been given above, variousalternatives, modifications, and equivalents will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without varying from the spirit of the invention.Therefore, the above description should not be taken as limiting thescope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims.

1-5. (canceled)
 6. A method comprising: receiving messages originated byat least one subscriber account; evaluating the messages in order todevelop a profile for the subscriber account, wherein the profileincludes metrics including a total number of e-mail messages originatedfrom the subscriber account within a predefined time interval, and anaverage number of recipients to which messages originated by thesubscriber are addressed generating behavior data for the subscriberaccount to be included in the profile; detecting behavior-basedanomalies for the subscriber account, wherein the behavior-basedanomalies include attempting to communicate a large number of new e-mailmessages in comparison to messaging patterns related to the behaviordata being maintained in the profile; determining reputation data forthe subscriber account based on said detected behavior-based anomalies,and wherein the behavior-based anomalies cause the new e-mail messagesto be redirected to a destination for which they were not originallyintended, and wherein a trustworthiness rating included in the profileis reduced as a result of detecting the behavior-based anomalies. 7.(canceled)
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprising: providing analert of potential subscriber account misuse based on said detectedbehavior-based anomalies.
 9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:applying a predetermined set of message disposition policies to the newmessages originated by the subscriber account based on the reputationdata.
 10. The method of claim 6, further comprising: determining animmediate action with regard to a particular message originated by thesubscriber account; and determining a long term action with regard tothe subscriber account.
 11. A gateway comprising: a service and responsesystem that services and responds to requests from a subscriber account,wherein the gateway is configured for: receiving messages originated bythe subscriber account; evaluating the messages in order to develop aprofile for the subscriber account, wherein the profile includes metricsincluding a total number of e-mail messages originated from thesubscriber account within a predefined time interval, and an averagenumber of recipients to which messages originated by the subscriber areaddressed; generating behavior data for the subscriber account to beincluded in the profile; detecting behavior-based anomalies for thesubscriber account, wherein the behavior- based anomalies includeattempting to communicate a large number of new e-mail messages incomparison to messaging patterns related to the behavior data beingmaintained in the profile; and determining reputation data for thesubscriber account based on said detected behavior-based anomalies, andwherein the behavior-based anomalies cause the new e-mail messages to beredirected to a destination for which they were not originally intended,and wherein a trustworthiness rating included in the profile is reducedas a result of detecting the behavior-based anomalies.
 12. (canceled)13. The gateway of claim 11, further comprising: an alert system thatprovides an alert of potential subscriber account misuse based on saiddetected behavior-based anomalies.
 14. The gateway of claim 11, furthercomprising: a disposition policy system that applies a predetermined setof message disposition policies to the new messages originated by thesubscriber account based upon said determined reputation data for thesubscriber account.
 15. The gateway of claim 11, wherein the gateway isfurther configured for: determining an immediate action with regard to aparticular message originated by the subscriber account; and determininga long term action for the subscriber account.
 16. A machine-readablenon-transitory medium that stores instructions for a computer system toperform operations comprising: receiving messages originated by at leastone subscriber account; evaluating the messages in order to develop aprofile for the subscriber account, wherein the profile includes metricsincluding a total number of e-mail messages originated from thesubscriber account within a predefined time interval, and an averagenumber of recipients to which messages originated by the subscriber areaddressed generating behavior data for the subscriber account to beincluded in the profile; detecting behavior-based anomalies for thesubscriber account, wherein the behavior-based anomalies includeattempting to communicate a large number of new e-mail messages incomparison to messaging patterns related to the behavior data beingmaintained in the profile; determining reputation data for thesubscriber account based on said detected behavior-based anomalies, andwherein the behavior-based anomalies cause the new e-mail messages to beredirected to a destination for which they were not originally intended,and wherein a trustworthiness rating included in the profile is reducedas a result of detecting the behavior-based anomalies.
 17. (canceled)18. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein an alert isprovided based on said detected behavior-based anomalies.
 19. Themachine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising: applying apredetermined set of message disposition policies to the new messagesoriginated by the subscriber account based upon said determinedreputation data for the subscriber account.
 20. The machine-readablemedium of claim 16, further comprising: determining an immediate actionwith regard to a particular message originated by the subscriberaccount; and determining a long term action with regard to thesubscriber account.
 21. (canceled)
 22. (canceled)
 23. (canceled) 24.(canceled)